The Maxi-Scooter combines a 3.7 kWh Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery pack and a 20 kW electric motor that delivers 65 Nm (48 lb-ft) torque. The battery pack is designed for up to 1,700 full charging cycles. Recharge time is about two hours.

The scooter also uses a throttle-activated regenerative braking system to capture some of the braking energy. The all-digital throttle also controls a slow-speed reverse function.

The scooter offers a top speed of 62 mph and a range of about 68 miles (110 km) at 25 mph (40 kph). Acceleration from 0-60 mph takes 5.8 seconds.

The company is using the core design to support the development of fuel-cell hybrid and three-wheel models of the scooter as well.

Assembly of 50 pilot scooters began this summer in the New Bedford, MA facility, which has a production capacity of 12,000 units per year. Vectrix plans to shift full-scale production to Wroclaw, Poland by the end of the year. That plant has a capacity of 38,000 units per year.

Suzuki Savage LS650 (now known as the boulevard C40 or something) has ~30hp on a single 650cc cylinder has almost the same 0-60 time (and a 15 second 1/4 mile time) so if this scooter is close to the same weight (360lbs dry weight) then it seems like a completely reasonable acceleration time. Especially since it has significantly more torque than the Suzuki Savage. 68 miles is great for the type of vehicle, but I wonder what the target price will be?

Impressive (all around) electric vehicle. Kids could leave the Hummer, Camaro, Charger, Mustang, etc home and use this electric scooter to go to school-university and drive around. Ladies could go shopping and take a child or two to school with the three-wheel version.

Assembly in Poland, with Chinese made parts, is a smart way to keep the price within reach.

this is intended for European city driving, where streets are much narrower and parking much harder to find. There will be certain markets in the US (e.g. Boston, SF) where this applies as well. Consumers in densely populataed areas in Asia might be interested as well.

Mahonj -

in the target markets, you'll actually be lucky to average 25mph on your morning commute. There are also legal speed limits regarding the type of driver' license, registration and insurance required for a powered vehicle.

Nice machine, ideal for short range quick trips when gas motor doesn't get warmed up. Short trips are bad for ICEs, so you'd be saving your car for longer service life. Less maintenance and hassle (gasoline, oil,...) than ICE bikes. Actually, hardly any maintenance is required, I guess.

On pricing, hmmm, tough call. You have cheaper "fuel" (electricity is much cheaper than gasoline), less parts (no chain, motor oil,...) less wear (on breaks, less break pads),.... So the savings might add up to pay for the extra money (ICE vs this one). The again you have other expenses ICEs don't. Batteries last 5-10 years, electric controllers last ????

After all you don't spend that much on ICE bikes maintenance either. Still for city, especially living in a building without a garage (no tools), certainly less maintenance is appealing.

If you don't have your own garage, basic hand tools, and a bike lift the cost of maintenance for a motorcycle is exorbitant (I'd imagine it would be similar for scooters as the only sellers and maintainers of scooters I have seen around here are also motorcycle dealerships). $50 for an oil change on a motorcycle...and that is for only 2 quarts of oil with an oil plug that is much easier to get to then the one on a car. Motorcycles usually are expected to be maintained after fewer miles than a car (and if it is your commuter vehicle that means it will need maintenance more often then your car).

I can't help thinking that they might be better off putting a smaller motor on each wheel. 20kW is overkill for going 50kph on the flat. (It would only take about 3kW to maintain that speed) If the front motor were on a switch then you could turn it off for cruising speeds on the flat and you would extend the range. I know that may be counter-intuitive for EVs but my experience is that the smaller motors are more efficient. Comments from the engineers?

you need the higher power rating during acceleration and especially, during recuperative braking. Electric motors aren't equally efficient at all points in their torque-speed map but given that this is a brushless model, the difference is fairly small. This is in marked contrast to an ICE, which suffers from substantial internal friction losses in part load.

Adding a second electric traction motor would add cost and weight but yield little by way of vehicle energy economy. Switching to Li-ion would make more sense but apparently, the initial cost is already very high anyhow.

Btw, Micah: the standard ways to get around the financing problem are dealer loans and leasing. There is no reason why these could not be applied to scooters. As G points out, you have to compare alternatives on the basis of total cost of ownership.

Rafael - yes they offer leasing. www.asifinance.com is the company doing it. its just that you can get a comparable 250cc gas scooter that gets 60-70 mpg for 4000-5000. This will cost twice as much. Still considering it though.

Economically, it's a very long payback period -- 151,000 miles without considering the cost of battery replacement (which I assume is net negligible, since other service and repair costs are likely lower for the electric).

The biggest advantage is obviously the zero emissions at the tailpipe, since the major drawback for motorcycles and scooters is that they are relatively dirty compared to other motor vehicles, mile for mile. One could also power using carbon-neutral electricity.

At 6,000 miles/yr, the electric's going to cost about $1.13 more per day. For me, that's worth the money.

Plus it's good to keep some perspective. A basic Civic 2 door with an automatic will cost $31K over a 5 year period, compared to under $8K for the Vectrix. And that's before accounting for parking costs.

It'll do really well in places like San Francisco, LA, Seattle, NY, Miami, and Portland.

$50 for a motorcycle oil change?!? Yeah, if you take it to a stealership...and if you take a motorcycle to a stealership for an oil change you probably can't even change a burned out light bulb yourself.